Method and system for generating and linking composite images

Abstract

A method and system for personalizing goods or services by including thereon a visible indication of the person or persons that are intended to utilize the goods and services. In one embodiment, based on computer processing, a series of parameters are calculated that can be used to generate a composite drawing (e.g., a line drawing) of the intended customer. Having created such a series of parameters, those parameters can be sent to the generator of the ticket or other personalized good. The generator can then use that series of parameters to print the composite drawing on the personalized good, either at the same time the good is originally printed or prior to providing the personalized good to the consumer. Alternatively, by receiving a customer number with the transaction confirmation from the credit card company, the merchant can download a full picture of the customer to be included on the personalized good.

1. A system for producing a personalized good, the system comprising:
 an image repository including plural images for each of plural regions of faces of people; 
 an information receiver for receiving, for each of a plurality of said regions, information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form a composite image of an intended user of said personalized good; and 
 at least one of a printer and an embedder for forming said personalized good by at least one of printing and embedding (1) said information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form the composite image and (2) the composite image of the intended user of said personalized good in said personalized good, wherein said information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form the composite image comprises a series of parameters that is specific to the day that the personalized good is intended to be used. 
 
     
     
       2. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the printer comprises a bar code printer. 
     
     
       3. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the printer comprises a watermark printer. 
     
     
       4. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the embedder comprises an RFID writer. 
     
     
       5. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information receiver comprises a network adapter. 
     
     
       6. The system as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the network adapter comprises a wired network adapter. 
     
     
       7. The system as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the wired network adapter comprises an Ethernet adapter. 
     
     
       8. The system as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the network adapter comprises a wireless network adapter. 
     
     
       9. The system as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the wireless network adapter comprises an 802.11 adapter. 
     
     
       10. The system as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the wireless network adapter comprises a Bluetooth adapter. 
     
     
       11. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information repository comprises a database. 
     
     
       12. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information repository comprises a file server. 
     
     
       13. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information repository comprises a remote file server. 
     
     
       14. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped comprises a plurality of indices, each index indicating, for a corresponding region of said plural regions, which image corresponds to the face of the intended user of said personalized good. 
     
     
       15. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped comprises an identifier identifying a plurality of indices, each index indicating, for a corresponding region of said plural regions, which image corresponds to the face of the intended user of said personalized good. 
     
     
       16. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the plural images of the image repository comprise black-and-white images. 
     
     
       17. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the plural images of the image repository comprise pre-processed black-and-white images. 
     
     
       18. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the plural images of the image repository comprise color images. 
     
     
       19. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the plural images of the image repository comprise pre-processed color images. 
     
     
       20. The system as claimed in  claim 19 , wherein the information receiver comprises an image comparator for comparing, for each of plural regions of the face of the intended user of said personalized good, the plural images in the image repository against corresponding regions of an image of the face of the intended user of said personalized good. 
     
     
       21. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped comprises sufficiently few bytes so as to be included in a credit card transaction. 
     
     
       22. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped comprises less than 30 bytes. 
     
     
       23. The system as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped comprises 25 bytes. 
     
     
       24. A system for enabling production of personalized goods, the system comprising:
 an image repository including plural images for each of plural regions of faces of people; 
 a comparator for comparing regions of an image of a subject to corresponding images of the plural images for each of plural regions of a face for the subject and for determining which of the corresponding images are to be used to represent the face of the subject; and 
 a communications adapter for sending to a generator of personalized goods (1) information indicative of which of the corresponding images are to be used as part of a composite image to represent the face of the subject and (2) the composite image representing the face of the subject, wherein said information indicative of which of the corresponding images are to be used as part of the composite image to represent the face of the subject comprises a series of parameters that is specific to the day that the personalized good is intended to be used. 
 
     
     
       25. The system as claimed in  claim 24 , wherein the image repository comprises at least 4 regions of a face. 
     
     
       26. The system as claimed in  claim 24 , wherein the comparator comprises a pre-processor for pre-processing the image of the subject prior to comparing the image of the subject with corresponding images of the plural images. 
     
     
       27. A scanning device for displaying a composite image of an intended user of a personalized good, the device comprising:
 an image repository including plural images for each of plural regions of faces of people; 
 an information carrier reader for obtaining, for each of a plurality of said regions, information from an information carrier indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form a composite image of the intended user of said personalized good, wherein said information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form the composite image of the intended user of said personalized good comprises a series of parameters that is specific to the day that the personalized good is intended to be used; and 
 a display for displaying the composite image using the images of said plural images that should be grouped, wherein the composite image displayed on the display can be compared with an image printed on the personalized good. 
 
     
     
       28. The device as claimed in  claim 27 , wherein the information carrier reader comprises a bar code reader. 
     
     
       29. The device as claimed in  claim 27 , wherein the information carrier reader comprises:
 a reader for reading an identifier from the information carrier; and 
 a communications adapter for requesting from a remote source, and based on the read identifier, a series of parameters identifying which images of said plural images should be grouped to form the composite image, wherein said series of parameters is specific to the day that the personalized good is intended to be used. 
 
     
     
       30. A method for producing a personalized good, the computer-implemented method comprising:
 storing, in an image repository of a computer having a processor and memory, plural images for each of plural regions of faces of people; 
 receiving in the computer, for each of a plurality of said regions, information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form a composite image of an intended user of said personalized good, wherein said information indicative of which images of said plural images should be grouped to form the composite image of the intended user of said personalized good comprises a series of parameters that is specific to the day that the personalized good is intended to be used; and 
 at least one of printing and embedding said information and the composite image into said personalized good using the computer.